Whiplash
by Believe In Something Bigger
Summary: "He's gone, Evie. He just got pushed way too far into his head to ever come out." Drowning in guilt and regret, Evie calls for the one person she knows who can make her feel okay about herself. *One-shot.*


Disclaimer:  I don't own _The Outsiders_ and I'm making zero dollars off of this.

_A/N: First time writing Steve and Evie, give me all the constructive criticism you can think of. _

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><p><strong>Friday, March 17, 1967<strong>

The screaming of pure terror was what woke her up. It sounded like a wild animal snarling and hissing, defending its territory. Evie slowly sat up in bed, and ran a hand through her tousled hair. There was only one person in her house who screamed like that, one person who ever felt the need to defend himself in the comfort of his own home.

Creeping out of her bed quietly, and smoothing her short nightgown down, she made her trek towards her bedroom door. She stepped cautiously around her textbooks, thrown down on her floor in a rush. Tiptoeing towards the door she cracked it open and her mouth fell open in horror. There he was being escorted down the hallway by two men in uniform, passed out cold. She stepped out of the doorframe and looked at her mother who stood at the end of the hall, one hand on her hip, supporting herself, while the other was fiercely wiping away the tears that seemed to drip down her face at a rapid speed.

"He's gone, Evie. He just got pushed way too far into his head to ever come out," Evie's mother said somberly, stepping forward to embrace her youngest child.

Evie hugged her mother back stiffly, in complete and utter shock. He wasn't coming back. The person she used to know had receded so far into his own mind that he was stuck in a rut, forever.

**xXx**

Steve sat out on his front porch attempting to complete his American History homework. He had always been somewhat of a procrastinator, but he figured since he had nothing else to do he might as well sit here and try.

He had just left the Curtis' and as soon as he walked in, he heard the drunken staggering and strained grunts of his father. Going with his gut, Steve decided he should just sit out on the porch for a little while, but soon that got boring and so he got his American History textbook out of his car and was trying to put it to good use, trying being the keyword.

It really pissed him off that he couldn't even go into his own damn house without the threat of being thrown out on the street. It happened every so often, but the sting of his dad telling him to get the hell out and never come back still stung. Every time it felt like a big old scab. It felt as though he was riding a bike and every time he got up riding on the two wheels, his father came out and hit him with a truck, the wounds just as deep and fresh as the time before.

It was times like this Steve ached for his mother so badly it hurt. It was times like this Steve lost his faith in God. The guy had more than plenty of good guardian angels; he didn't see why he had to keep taking people connected to Steve's life. First, his mom, then, the Curtis parents, next Johnny and finally, Dallas. When things like that happened he didn't know why he even bothered with people. It seemed to him every single person you considered family just got taken away. He felt like a child being punished for sticking his hand in the cookie jar.

_Oh, no, Steve! You can't have that, it makes you too happy. I'll just snatch that up for you._

Suddenly he heard a clanging, like a bell. Confused as to what it was, Steve snapped out of his daze and surveyed the area around him and realized it was the telephone.

_It's twelve thirty in the morning, who in the almighty universe would be calling right now? _Steve thought to himself.

Realizing he only had few seconds before his father woke up in a fury, Steve darted into the house.

"Hello?" Steve whispered into the phone, glancing over nervously at his dad, passed out on the couch.

"Stevie? Is that you?"

"No, it's Santa Clause. Evie? Is that you?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm real sorry about callin' you right now." She paused for a moment to catch her breath, and then Steve knew something was wrong. She didn't just call in the middle of the night for chit-chat, something was seriously wrong.

"Don't worry about it. What's up, baby?" he replied softly. He could hear her voice crack and her breath catch as she replied in a whisper so quiet he barely caught her words.

"They-they to-took him a-away, Stevie. They took him away from my house, and I don't know wh-where they're taking hi-him. My ma just st-stood there crying, and, I need you," she choked out.

His heart clenched painfully at the way she tripped over her words. Evie was a strong girl and she didn't just cry at the drop of a hat, it took something really shell shocking for her to be that upset.

"Gimme five, alright, baby? Open the window I climb through in your room, like always, okay?"

"Alright," she sighed. "See you in five."

"See ya in five, baby. I'm coming."

**xXx**

As soon as Evie hung up the phone with Steve she dragged herself slowly down the hall towards her bedroom. Staring down at the vacant doors that occupied her house she felt the hole in her heart open just a bit wider. Both of her siblings' rooms were abandoned; Jimmy hadn't come home that night; he was playing in a poker tournament over at Buck's. Meanwhile Abby was probably spending the night at her boyfriend, Pete's house.

Under normal circumstances she would have relished in the quiet, but at the sudden lack of people in her home at that moment the silence felt like it was slicing through her. The cold hard knife of reality just kept stabbing itself deeper and deeper into her heart.

As soon as she reached her bedroom and reopened her door she saw Steve's car parked on the curb and heard the rattling of the branches as he carefully maneuvered himself up the trunk of the old oak. In a hurry to have some company she quickly shut her door and sprinted over to the window to let him in. Unlocking the window, Steve helped pull up the window that constantly got stuck and had almost led to his death more than a few times in past years.

She grabbed his hand and he ducked through the small window, stumbling rather ungracefully onto her bedroom floor. He turned around and carefully slid the window shut. As soon as he turned around she flung her arms around his torso and buried her head in his chest.

"They took him away, Steve. My ma said he was too far gone for us to do anything anymore. She let these _people_ he didn't even know just take him away," she spat disgusted.

"Oh, Eves," he sighed, wrapping his strong, muscular arms around waist, pulling her to him.

"Your dad was real, sick, Evie. He was going out of his mind, you couldn't nothin' for him anymore, your ma was right. He wasn't your dad anymore." He let go of her and carefully led her over to her bed. He took off his leather jacket and threw it on the floor hurriedly.

"It was just so hard," she whispered leaning her head back against the wall. "He just ... it wasn't my daddy anymore, Steve. He's all alone in his head; stuck forever and I can't get him out—I couldn't help him get out." She got choked up and shut her mouth really quick as if cutting off what she was about to say. Steve protectively placed an arm around her, and Evie leaned her head onto his chest.

"It wasn't your duty to help him, Eves, it was your job to just be there for him. You were there for him as much as you could, baby. It wasn't your job to babysit him, and it isn't your fault that he took those drugs. Those drugs messed him up so bad, Evie. It makes me sick that someone could do that to themselves and not think about what happens to everyone else around them. Look at _you._ He broke you. He broke your family, and here you are, blaming yourself. I'm sorry, Evie, but as much as you want to dig yourself a grave, I'll be damned if I let you. It's not your fault," he said, his voice strong with confidence.

Staring across the room at her small bureau Evie felt her eyes sting again as Steve defended her against herself. She was her own worst enemy, that's the way it would always be. One minute her conscience was perfectly fine, but the next it spun her around and made her feel undeniable guilt. Her mind jumped around so fast sometimes it felt like her neck would break from all of the switching sides.

"It's just, everything changed all of a sudden. He suddenly started getting worse and I couldn't do anything, but just watch. Watching him get worse was like whiplash from a car accident; one minute he was doing just fine, the next BAM! he can't even remember where the hell he is," Evie stated quietly, wiping the tears that refused to stop flooding her eyes.

First, she was daddy's little girl, then she was her father's keeper, what was she now to him? Now it seemed she served no purpose to her father, he was just another person who had come and gone in her life and hadn't mattered at all. There was nothing left of him. He would never be the same.

Evie sat still in silence for so long that eventually Steve had to check to make sure she was still awake.

"Hey, Evie?" Steve asked, his fingers twirling her dark brown around his finger.

"Hm?" she mumbled.

"You're gonna have to beat me with a stick to get me to leave, you know that, right?"

"I know, Steve. I love you, baby," she responded quietly, and calmly lay down on her bed and pulled Steve down beside her.

With Evie's wavy hair spread across his chest and her tears drying slowly on his tee-shirt he replied, "I love you, too, darlin', you're gonna be just fine. I promise."

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><p><em>AN: Well, I started this at 1:00 A.M. and finished at 3:00 A.M., so I can't catch everything, haha. Feel free to point out anything that looks weird. REVIEWS ARE BEATUY._


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